


Cactus Junko

by shezni



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-15
Updated: 2013-08-15
Packaged: 2017-12-23 12:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/926669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shezni/pseuds/shezni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even if she was only the third most beautiful woman in town, it wouldn’t kill people to remember her name every now and then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cactus Junko

_My name is Junko._

                _Junko_.

_Junko._

She sat perched atop one of the highest cacti in town, kicking her feet absently, muttering the words over and over again. She’d been there for about three days already, the spines of her perch piercing her golden-brown skin. Even though her ruffled blue dress was full of holes and sported dark bloodstained patches, she didn’t mind too terribly. She’d been one of the lucky few to be born without pain receptors in Night Vale and she was kept securely fastened in place. A radio hung from one of the stems above her, crackling static and swaying in the hot desert wind. She was out on the edges of town, so she could only get the numbers station and Cecil Baldwin’s daily evening broadcast. Junko didn’t mind though. The voices were soothing and made living on the cactus a little less lonely. From where she sat, she could see the blinking red light of the radio tower, pulsing gently and casting a dull light over the desert landscape. She liked to imagine that the light on the tower was a great eye, guarding the town with vigilance and dignity while gazing on the tortured souls within the city limits.

               Her exit from the life of the town had been quite the media event. Reporters jockeyed for a chance to do her final interview and people showered her with flowers and small boxes of candies. She was, after all, the third most beautiful woman in town, and the most approachable of all the town beauties, especially since the first and second most beautiful women had been ceremonially encased in amber by the City Council. Her choice to live among the cacti was thought by many to be a way to escape her eventual encasement, but for Junko, it was far more than that.  

               It was weariness, pure and simple. She may not feel physical pain, but the pain of living blazed through her nerves more intensely that any cactus spine. The stares. The glances. The touches. The jeers. The way people would reach for her hair or comment on her eyes. There was so much pain and ugliness in Night Vale, than when the people heard of beauty, they grabbed onto it and dragged it into the mire. Ever since she was a girl and the papers had published  _that_  list, she could not escape it.

                _Hey, did you hear about Judy?_

_No, no, I’m sure it was Jane._

_Hey, Janet, give us a smile._

               _Is it Junko? Huh, Junko? What kind of name is that? No, it’s probably Judy or something._

Her name disappeared first, slowly sinking into the black mud, and everything else about her followed suit. Soon, she was left with nothing but her face to identify her. Her personality became beautiful. Her voice became beautiful. Her breath, her thoughts, her viscera, her tears. They were all wiped clean of what made them hers. She knew she had to do something. So she left, and did nothing at all. The desert was quiet. The desert had no eyes. It had no reaching hands. The desert left her at peace.

                _Junko._

_Hello, I am Junko._

_Junko._

               The mantra continued. Maybe one day she would hear her name from a mouth other than her own. Until then, she repeated herself, again and again, until the sun sank below the horizon, dragging her into a deep, dreamless sleep. 


End file.
